Let me tell you Justine's story

Just Call Me “The Baby Whisperer”

In the WordPress U course “Writing 101” our assignment is to “Take A Cue From Our Readers”. In a previous lesson we were encouraged to make a poll. Here’s mine:
As you can see “stories from my life” got the most votes. I’ve been trying to incorporate more life stories.

This weekend I went to stay with my daughter, Candice and my grandson. Oliver is six months old and has been co-sleeping with his mom since birth. She puts him in his crib every day with mixed success. Most times he cries and she takes him out. Babies sleep on their backs now as recommended by hospitals and midwives. It’s to prevent Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). Blankets are also also prohibited. No wonder babies don’t like their cribs.

I had read about a new sleeping technique that helped babies learn to sleep and told my daughter about it. Oliver has a very strong neck and arms now so there’s no chance of suffocation if he’s on his tummy. We waited until he was rubbing his eyes and thought we’d try it. I placed him on his tummy and he immediately lifted his head and began crying. He kept his head up but I moved out of his eyesight. I patted his back and began saying,

“Shhhhhhhh……shhhhhhhhhhh”

He put his head down then it popped back up. I knew he was getting tired so I gently pushed his head back down with my other hand. I continued patting and rubbing his back and shhhhhhhing him. Within a few minutes he was asleep. We did this again the next day and it worked again. If you continue to use this technique, you’re supposed to stop rubbing and patting his back and just shhhhh. Then you move away from the crib while shhhhhhhhing. Eventually, when the baby cries you simply say,

“Shhhh” and that’s the cue to go to sleep. I’ll see how my daughter does on her own.

Today, he was sleeping and he woke up. My daughter was going to take a shower so she told me to watch him. I lay my hand on him and said,

“Grandma’s here.” He closed his eyes and went back to sleep.

I never had trouble getting my kids to go to bed. I would warn them about 15 minutes ahead and say it was bedtime soon. Then again 5 minutes later. By the time it was bedtime, they were ready. I kept a strict bedtime too. My kids were in bed by 8 when they were little. I recall one time telling the kids playing outside to be quiet because my kids were sleeping. I think the biggest mistakes parents make is inconsistency. Once kids know what the rules are, they follow them. If there aren’t any guidelines, then they don’t know what to expect.

I do have a funny story about bedtime though. My younger daughter, Candice would not sleep in her bed. We’d put her in bed but she’d get up and go into the hallway and sleep on the carpet. She never came downstairs. We would pick her up and carry her to bed once she was asleep.

We were lucky. We had good sleepers 2/3. One of the twins is a night owl though, takes after me. As babies though, they all slept through the night pretty quickly, and as toddlers they had an 8:30 bedtime. Even on weekends.